... Europeans comply with their own laws and demonstrates the benefits of pumping gas through Nord Stream 2. And it is Ukraine that is, in fact, blackmailing the Europeans when it says that the financial burden will rest on their shoulders in the event that Gazprom fails to pay the billions of dollars per year that it is demanding to transit gas. Caught between a rock and a hard place – the United States and Germany (for which Nord Stream 2 is extremely beneficial) – Sweden has chosen to blindly execute the necessary procedures. It has reviewed the documents submitted for the presence of fire hazards and has issued a construction permit.
That the United ...
... hydropower capacities have been stagnating for years (11 per cent), while the second most important renewable energy source, wind energy, takes up only 3.8 per cent in the country’s energy balance. Despite the impressive growth of wind energy use in Germany, coal still
dominates
the country’s energy sources. In Holland, coal consumption grew by 19 per cent in 2010–2015, and gas imported from Russia could be a way to cover the Dutch fields dropping production without the risk of paying taxes on CO2 emissions.
Out of Gazprom’s three latest gas transportation initiatives (the South Stream, the Turkish Stream and Nord Stream 2), Nord Stream 2 has the greatest chance of being implemented. By the end of 2016, it will be clear whether Nord Stream 2 will have to deal ...
... require it to guarantee the stable supply of gas to Central and Eastern European countries. However, gas not intended for Central and Eastern Europe, including that which travels through the Yamal–Europe pipeline, will run through a new route, and Germany will become the largest gas hub in Europe. Gazprom, in turn, will become
the leading supplier of gas to Germany, with a 60-per cent share of the market
. But there are a number of obstacles in the way of Nord Stream 2 becoming a reality. The most often cited of these – that increasing gas ...
